Riverbank Retreat

🧙‍♀️ Women’s Circle – Thursday 14th May 🧙‍♀️

Not every part of Witch School involves fire.

Sometimes it looks like women sitting together, holding space for each other… and learning more than they expected to.

Our Women’s Circle is part of the curriculum, just at a gentler pace. It’s where things start to click and what you’ve been learning begins to feel real.

There’s still teaching, still guidance, still growth, just without setting anything on fire 🔥

📍 Riverbank Retreat
🗓 Thursday 14th May
🕖 7:00pm

Book in advance to save your space.

https://www.riverbankretreat.co.uk/event-list

Interested in learning about witchcraft or energy work, but finding most of it a bit too… woo? 🧙‍♀️🧹

You’re not the only one.

What we’ve built at Riverbank Retreat is something a bit more grounded… somewhere between “this actually makes sense” and “how did I not know this already?”

The workshops and one-off experiences follow a clear teaching arc, so each time you come along, you’re building on what came before. It builds, and it starts to click.

So much so, the women have nicknamed us Witch School… and honestly, they’re not wrong.

We started with the Wheel of the Year in February, moved into herbal medicine in March, and then into sacred space clearing in April. This month, it’s the Beltane fire ritual, which is where things get a bit more hands-on 🔥

Some sessions are about learning, some are practical, and some give you the chance to actually step into it and see what it feels like to build energy as a group.

Alongside the monthly events and the Women’s Circle, everything is designed to help you understand energy in a simple, real-world way. How to work with it, how to feel it, and how to use it with intention, especially in a group setting.

It’s all built in steps, so you can go as far as you want with it… no wand required.

If you’ve been curious but weren’t sure where to start, this is a good place to begin.

If you’ve got questions, message or give us a call, we’re always happy to chat.

🔥 Beltane Fire Ritual – This Thursday 🔥

Still waiting for your acceptance letter from that school of wizardry? 🧙‍♀️🧹 Ours must’ve got lost in the post, so we built Witch School instead, only ours leans a bit more into real world, real work.

This Thursday we’re lighting the fire at Riverbank Retreat, and whether we’re outside under the sky or bringing it indoors, the intention stays the same, and it always ends up being more powerful than people expect.

Bring something with you as an offering to the fire. If there’s an area of your life that’s been asking for growth, choose something that represents it to you, a note, a flower, a stick, something from nature, something that feels right in your hands and carries meaning for what you’re ready to move forward.

A bit Witch School, just without the fiction.

Dress for the weather we get, not the weather you want 😉

📍 Riverbank Retreat
Portland Cottage, 8 Portland Brae
Hurlford, KA1 5AL
🗓 Thursday 7th May
🕖 7:00pm
🔥 Beltane Fire Ritual

Book in advance so we know how many witches we’re gathering… and how much broomstick parking we need 🧹✨

Sound Bath this Saturday.

Witch School continues.

This one’s less “everyone suddenly knows what they’re doing” and more “lie down and keep your eyes closed.”

Group participation through closed eyes and lots of different instruments.

Sound, a warm room, and a solid hour where you get to float away.

If you’ve been meaning to come along, this is the easiest class on the timetable.

https://www.riverbankretreat.co.uk/event-details/sound-bath-2026-05-02-11-00

Thursday’s cacao ceremony went really well…and has slightly reinforced the Witch School allegations.

We brought in a call and response for opening and calling the quarters, and the whole room just went with it. No hesitation, just straight into it like it had always been part of circle.

A few of the women said it was the most powerful they’ve experienced cacao, even compared to other ceremonies they’ve been to, which we’re taking as a win… and also a sign we might need to start issuing certificates at some point.

We’re not saying we’ve created a syllabus,
but it’s starting to look a little like one.

Anyway, Sound Bath next Saturday. Classes continue.....

We didn’t come up with “Witch School” ourselves, that title was handed to us weeks ago and it seems to have stuck.

So instead of arguing with it, we’ve leaned in and given it a logo that makes it look far more official than it probably should.

Same circle every month, mostly the same women and the same slightly suspicious lack of any kind of head teacher!

At this point it’s less of a nickname and more of a working title.

This week at Riverbank (also known as Witch School):

Women’s Circle
Introduction to Holistic Wellbeing
Craft N Cuppa
Cacao Ceremony

A full timetable, as usual encompassing some deep work, some quiet moments, some people just coming in for a cup of tea and staying longer than they meant to.

Next week?
Straight back in with the Sound Bath.

Because, as it turns out…
no one seems to have told Witch School about holidays!

We’re hoping to take this one outside if the weather holds 🌿

This month we’re focusing on integration and anchoring, giving everything we’ve been working through this year the chance to properly settle.

For anyone who hasn’t been before, cacao is a warm ceremonial drink made from raw cacao, but the way it’s prepared here isn’t fixed.

When I go into the ceremonial space to make it, it’s made with the intention for the night ahead and the women who will be in the room.

That’s what guides it. Sometimes it’s made with one base, sometimes a different root tea. You might find notes of honey, a bit of spice, something warming running through it. It’s never exactly the same twice.

We sit with the cacao, we honour it, and we drink it consciously. From there, the rest of the evening follows on naturally into the work.

Still part of Witch School 🧙‍♀️
…arguably the best-tasting part of the curriculum.

📅 Thursday 23rd April
🕖 7:00pm

If this feels like something you’d like to be part of, you’re very welcome to come along. We’ll have everything ready.

The women have been asking to go deeper, and that’s exactly what I did on Thursday night’s Women’s Circle.

The circle was busy, with a few brand new faces who had no idea what to expect, and as always we began by grounding, just to bring everyone back into themselves. From there, the evening deepened in a way we haven’t gone before as a group.

This time, everyone called in the quarters together, and that was the moment where you could really feel the energy start to build as all the women’s voices came together and called the circle in.

From there we moved into breathwork and working with our own energy, actually feeling it and sitting with it, while still being aware of the other women in the room. You could see people realising it for themselves, starting to trust what they were feeling, and trusting the space around them.

Because of the time of year, the meditation brought in that wild maiden energy. That sense of life and vitality that so many of us lose somewhere along the way. Watching the women reconnect with that in their own way was something really special.

We moved between stillness, movement and connection. Some moments stayed soft and contained, others opened people up more than they expected.

At one point, during a longer hug, one of the women disappeared into laughter after convincing herself she’d somehow wandered into ta***ic s*x school instead of Witch School… which probably tells you everything you need to know about how unfiltered the space is 😂

Even something as simple as staying in a hug a little longer shifted things for some of the women in the room.

Some laughed, some cried, and by the end of it everyone felt a little different. Some left feeling calmer, some more connected to the other women, but everyone seemed more settled in themselves.

The messages afterwards said everything really. Women talking about how much the space means to them, how held they feel in it, and how much they value what’s been built there together.

It felt like a bit of a turning point for the group. They trusted me enough to go deeper, and every single one of them met me there.